March 3 Double Header: T46s and T90s/T101s

Last weekend we headed out on the water with Maya's Legacy on a beautiful day. With heavy winds to the north, we headed south down San Juan Channel and made a stop at Whale Rocks, my favorite sea lion haul out.

With a report of whales in Puget Sound, they made the decision to go for it - a bit of a long trek, but new boating territory for me! It was awesome to check off my bucket list going under the Deception Pass Bridge on a boat.

We're starting to see signs of spring, but winter is still keeping her grip on the region, as evidenced by the snowy foothills providing a backdrop to our journey:

When we got on scene with the T46s (and T122 who travels with them) we started by watching the two males T46D and T46E traveling together. It was impressive to see them with all the houses in the background, as it really shows how urban these whales are!

T46D (left) and T46E (right)

T46E (left) and T46D (right)

The T46s are such a cool family for many reasons. One is that T46 Wake was part of the last killer whale capture in Washington State in 1976. She was released and is still plying the same waters as one of the most successful mothers on record. As we discussed on the boat while we were on scene, if she had been taken into captivity as many other whales were in the 1960s and 70s, there would be nearly 20 fewer transient killer whales in the region, because that's how many living descendants she has.

T46 Wake with her son T46E.

Another reason the T46s are so cool is because they actually "disappeared" for 13 years, where they left the area and weren't seen during that time. When they returned, there was actually some confusion about the whales that were present. Two of the returning whales were given new designations as T122 and T123, but were later determined to be the likely offspring of T46. T122 still travels with the T46s, and was actually determined to be the same whale as T46A, a calf who was seen in 1982 before the long gap in sightings.

It's long been my dream to be able to name a killer whale, and my dream recently came true when my suggested name for T122, Centeki, was voted to be her name among the local whale community. (An effort is under way from naturalists, captains, researchers, and others in the region to give common names to many of the transient/Bigg's killer whales in the region that don't yet have them.) Centeki is one of the 13 lunar phases recognized by the Coast Salish people, and I thought this was appropriate given the confusion over her identify after her 13 year absence.

T122 Centeki, named by yours truly!

While we were on scene in Saratoga Passage, the whales appeared to be in travel/passive hunting mode, but shortly before it was time to leave it became clear they were on the hunt. Four of the five whales in the family group made quick work of a harbor seal, which we got a brief glimpse of as one of the whales lunged through the surface with the seal held in its mouth. As they shared the spoils, gulls came down to partake in the scraps. I thought this was a unique perspective of gulls fighting over a piece of seal meat while an orca surfaces in the background:

One more look at the impressive 16 year-old male T46E, with his wavy dorsal fin:

As we started making our way back north towards home, reports came in of another group of whales picked up between us and Friday Harbor. At this point, the trip was already running long, so why not just keep it going, especially when more whales in calm waters and beautiful lighting are right in front of you? Too good to pass up!

T101 and T101B under Mt. Baker

It was the T90s and T101s, and we watched them make their way into Cattle Pass from Iceberg Point.

Spyhop from T90B

The whales just added to what was already a stunning scene, with seals, sea lions, porpoises, and birds actively feeding in what was shaping up to be a pretty dramatic sunset!

Pelagic cormorant flyby

Sunset over the Cattle Point Lighthouse

While it ended up being a much longer trip than expected, it was a particularly memorable one! I absolutely love being on the water this time of year when things are still pretty quiet, especially as the whale sightings start picking up. It's looking like the heightened transient/Bigg's killer whale sigthings are continuing so far in early 2019, so we'll see what the rest of the spring will bring!

Summary of June Southern Resident Visits

Yikes, I think more than two months without a blog post is a new record, and not in a good way! It has been a very busy summer so far, and thankfully part of that has been due to some visits from the Southern Residents over the last six weeks. In the interest of sharing some photos and recapping some sightings, I'll make this a bit of a summary blog.

June 11 - 16: J-Pod and the Greater L4s

On June 11th the Southern Residents returned to the Salish Sea for the first time in nine weeks. All of J-Pod returned with the group I've called the "Greater L4s", made up of the L4s, L26s, L47s, and L72s. (The L12s actually came in too, but left the next day, while the others stayed.) This was obviously cause for great celebration, including playing hooky a morning from work to go say hi to them all and truly kick off the summer whale-watching season.

L55 in Haro Strait June 11

It was a picture perfect, glassy calm morning to be out on the water, and we got some fantastic hydrophone recordings before there were any other boats out. You can hear a clip here.

J38 Cookie also seemed "excited" to be back, though as much as we were hoping he was helping to make babies, he was actually fooling around with a couple of other young males, J39 Mako and L109 Takoda.

Regardless of what they were up to, it was just great to see some exuberant, roly-poly whales.

One of the best parts of seeing the whales after a long absence is to see how much they have grown, such as L122 Magic who already looks so much bigger at 3 years old!

L91 Muncher and L122

I think everyone was holding their breath that after such a long absence, the Southern Residents might only make a brief 24 hour visit, but luckily they stayed around for the next five days. On June 15, they were doing a good old fashioned "westside shuffle", and I got to see them early in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night!

The morning included a special moment at Land Bank where it was just me and the whales, and I was treated to this spyhop from J36 Alki.

Spyhop from J36 Alki

In the afternoon, the J16s and J19s came up as far as Lime Kiln before turning around, but not before J16 slick took a turn in the bull kelp right off the lighthouse, and did four or five spyhops making sure we got a nice look at her from every angle!

J16 Slick flings some kelp in the air with her tail

"Which side is better....my right?....

....or my left?"

In the evening, after a big group of Js zipped north on a huge flood tide, they then turned and rocketed back south right off the shoreline of Lime Kiln, all in a big line.

A little behind them came the rest, in a slower and more playful fashion.

Breach from J37 Hy'shqa

Sadly, on the morning of the 16th, the whales were headed back west again, but two other things made their first visit of the summer even more bittersweet. One was that L92 Crewser was not with them, bringing the population down to just 75 whales. The other was that three year old female J50 Scarlet was looking emaciated. All calves, but especially female calves (due the male-bias sex ratio in calves in recent years and also the female's ability to produce more whales) are so, so critical to this endangered population. We are all crossing our fingers for this little whale, who has been a fighter from day one, with the scarring she showed right after birth potentially being from a difficult birthing process where other whales had to assist. As of today, July 15th, more than a month later, she is still with us, but is not yet looking better.

June 20 - 21: J-Pod and the Greater L4s

On June 20th, the same group of Js and Ls came back into inland waters, and they were in party mode as they passed Land Bank's Westside Preserve in one big group in the afternoon.

J27 Blackberry and his brother J39 Mako

Some of the L4s

They went all the way up to the Fraser, then when they came down the next day they split into two groups. J-Pod came down one of the "normal" ways, but the Ls came down San Juan Channel, and I saw them as they exited Cattle Pass. The few times I've seen Residents exit Cattle Pass, they always seem to go beserk, and this time was no exception as they were breaching and tail slapping all over the place as they moved out into the bigger, windier seas of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

It was a quicker visit this time, as on the 22nd the whales were westbound out the strait again. The same Js and Ls made another visit to inland waters June 27-29, but were not very cooperative for shore-based whale watchers this time as they passed the west side of San Juan Island in the middle of the night each time. That would wrap up their visits for June, and then there would be another nearly two week absence before the Southern Residents returned in mid-July. Js came back in on June 12th, bringing K-Pod with them for their first visit to the Salish Sea since March! But this will all be further recapped in my next post, which I promise won't take two months to share!

September 20 ~ Whale Watch with J34

On Saturday, September 20th, with some friends and family in town, we decided to head out on a morning whale watch trip with Western Prince. With all three pods hanging out on the banks the previous evening, I was worried they might all head out west and leave, but was thrilled instead to hear the news that whales were spread from Eagle Point to Hannah Heights as we left the harbor.

It was a beautiful day to be on the water, and fun to see some of my favorite spots from the water after spending so much more time on shore these days. Here's Cattle Point with harbor seals and cormorants on Goose Island in the foreground and the Olympic Mountains in the background:

As we pulled out into Haro Strait, the whales were suuuuuper spread out - one here, one there - and seemingly all foraging. With about three whales in front of and in shore of us, we stopped the boat to just watch and see what they would do. After a long dive, all of a sudden J34 Doublestuf popped up off our bow cruising towards the island.

J34 Doublestuf

J34 Doublestuf with San Juan Island in the background

He cruised in towards shore, and we floated along watching a couple other whales, presumably the rest of his family, the J22s. After a while, I was starting to wonder where he had gotten to, because it had been several minutes since he had been up. That's when I noticed a fluke print (a calm looking area on the surface of the water created by the kick of the flukes creating an upwelling) about 50 yards off our bow. A second later, a huge black and white shape came into view heading straight for us!

I have to preface this with a major disclaimer that moments like this do not happen often. I've been watching whales up here for over a decade, and I can count on one hand the number of moments I've had like this from a boat. Whale watch captains do their best to follow the distance regulations to give the whales their space, but the fact of the matter is the whales don't know or follow any such rules, and when they choose to break them, we get to enjoy a rare close encounter.

Doublestuf proceeded to swim all along the starboard side of the boat, just beneath the surface, turned on his side so his dorsal fin didn't even break through the surface. I was shooting the camera without looking through the viewfinder, taking in this rare encounter firsthand, and I could tell he was actively turning his head - look at us, or perhaps looking for a salmon trying to take refuge under the boat? It was all over so fast, but moments like this are pure magic, and I'm grateful I captured as much of it as I did on film. I should probably mention these shots were taken with my lens zoomed all the way out - to 18mm!!

J34 Doublestuf: RIGHT. THERE.

You can tell here he's turning his head to look under the boat

Another perspective, showing just how close to the boat he was!

As he got further away again, we all suddenly had a much better appreciation for just how big he is - sometimes it's hard to tell without something to scale them by!

J34 continues to forage

After a while it was time to leave the orcas, but our wildlife watching was far from done! Just a bit south of the whales we saw a nice group of Dall's porpoise. As has been the case in recent years, these guys have been scarce during the summer months, only to return in full force in September. I wonder where they go?

Dall's porpoise!!

Then we went by Whale Rocks, where the Steller sea lion action is always fantastic this time of year. I just don't get tired of watching these guys!

Stellers and the Cattle Point Lighthouse

Thinking about entering the water.... (he did)

Steller and Mt. Baker!

It's always a multi-sensory experience watching Stellers. You see them, smell them, and hear them as they dispute whose rock is whose.

 

Sea lions make easy work navigating the complicated currents of Cattle Pass, though this guy came up coughing. Wouldn't want to meet those teeth much closer, that's for sure!

Needless to say, we had a fantastic trip, and it was phenomenal introduction the local wildlife for our guests!

The T65As and T75Bs

For several days there's been a group of seven transient (Bigg's) killer whales roaming the area; on Friday they went right into downtown Vancouver and were seen off Stanley Park! Sunday morning I was excited to hear that they were seen right outside of Friday Harbor. They made their way south down San Juan Channel, and we headed down to Cattle Point to try and see them. As we reached the south end of the island, I was surprised to see whale-watching boats very deep in Griffin Bay, practically along the shoreline! Instead of waiting at Cattle Point we went to Third Lagoon, where we saw the whales from shore - never thought I'd see killer whales from there!

The group of whales was made up of the T65As (female T65A and her three living offspring) as well as T75B, her offspring T75B1, and her sibling T75C. Originally called transients because they roamed more widely, there's an effort under way to get them commonly referenced as Bigg's killer whales after pioneering killer whale researcher Mike Bigg. They're marine mammal eating whales as opposed to J, K, and L Pods who eat exclusively fish. Below is the family tree of the seven whales (T75 and T75A were not present) taken from the 2012 Bigg's killer whale ID guide available for download here.

 

After the whales rounded Cape San Juan, we headed back to Cattle Point, hoping they would stay close to shore. Instead, they veered out to go around Goose Island, but it's always pretty special to be able to see transients from shore. They also often do different sorts of behaviors than resident killer whales - I've seen them swimming backwards, for instance, and this one did the slowest cartwheel I've ever seen. That black line that looks like a log to the bottom left of the whale was actually a seal, hoping the whales moved on before the tide got too much higher:

There were a lot of seals in Cattle Pass, but the whales didn't seem to interested. Word was they had made a kill, maybe a harbor porpoise, shortly before we saw them. Here was another seal more concerned with looking at us than looking at the seal-eating whales out beyond him:

As the whales headed out the pass into the choppy waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, we turned our attention to all the birds that were around feeding along the shoreline and in the water. It's not the best picture, but look at this black oystercatcher whose beak curves to his right:

We got a few closer looks when the oystercatchers took flight, coming right by where we stood on the rocks:

Also, we see harlequin ducks all the time, but I usually don't get too close to them. This is probably the best picture I've ever been able to get of them when they, too, passed right by where we were:

While walking back to the car, I saw a huge orange moth. When it landed it quickly hid under some leaves, but I'm pretty sure it's a banded woollybear (Pyrrharctia isabella), which we see much more commonly as the black and orange caterpillars in the spring and fall.

Today, after a week without resident killer whale sightings, word was that L-Pod returned, so hopefully I'll get to see them sometime later this week. I will of course report back here :)